Saved!

Saved!

Rating (from metacritic.com): 62/100

Storyline (from IMDB.com):
When a girl attending a Christian high school becomes pregnant, she finds herself ostracized and demonized, as all of her former friends turn on her.

Source: My personal collection

Review:

It’s finally happened. I thought it wouldn’t have happened so soon, but it just couldn’t be avoided.

I finally have a movie I can’t find fault with.

But, don’t worry; the next review will be a terrible movie.

Let’s get rolling, shall we? I loved this movie so much because it’s not hateful, it handles a touchy subject tastefully, and it leaves you in a better place than it found you.

Saved takes place in a fictional Christian high school outside of Baltimore. We first meet Mary, whose father passed away when she was young, and has accepted Jesus Christ as her personal savior for most of her life. She lives a perfect little suburban Christian life, with her perfect little Christian boyfriend and attends the perfect little Christian school, with all of her perfect little Christian friends. See, she has the perfect life.

But, life isn’t actually perfect, no matter what anyone tells you. After Mary learns that her boyfriend may be gay, and hitting her head, she receives a ‘vision’ of Jesus. She believes he wants her to have sex with her boyfriend, to save him from the ‘evils’ of homosexuality. What he actually says is something a bit different, like most things people say God says. When see comes to, she begins work on ‘de-gaying’ her boyfriend. They kiss, fondle and eventually go ‘all the way.’ (I have to say, the writers and directors really captured just how awkward the first time a boy touches a girl’s boobies.) But, before Mary has sex with her boyfriend, she talks with her best friend, Hillary Faye (played by Mandy Moore), about virginity, while at a gun range. Hillary Faye says that God/Jesus can restore your ‘spiritual’ virginity, then starts shooting a gun. Because good Christian girls defend their virginity with deadly force. No, seriously. “I’m saving myself for marriage. And I’ll use force if necessary.”

A few weeks after having sex, school starts and Mary joins her friends in the car pool, where we meet Macaualay Culkin’s fantastic character, Roland. This is a terrible, terrible pun as his character is a paraplegic and in a wheelchair. The group arrives at Mary’s boyfriend’s house and she is total that he’s been sent off to Mercy House, the place where Christian parents go send their failures in parenting, because his father found gay porn in his room. Crushed by this news, Mary tries to make her way through school. She also meets Patrick, the principal’s son, and wonders if she did the right thing in giving her boyfriend her virginity. We also meet Cassandra, the lone Jewish girl in this Perfect Christian school, and by the end of the first day, we see the beginnings of romance between Cassandra and Roland.

Time passes, and Mary discovers she might be pregnant. Rather than buy a test, she steals it, for fear of anyone discovering her secret and ‘shame.’ The results are positive, and she goes to Planned Parenthood to confirm the test results, when she’s spotted by Cassandra and Roland, and the following dialogue is exchanged:
“There’s only one reason good Christian girls go to the Planned Parenthood…”
“She’s planting a pipe-bomb?!?”
“Okay, two reasons.”
After having to come to terms with the fact that she is with child, Mary ends up visiting Hillary Faye’s house, where she’s hosting a prayer circle to ‘cure’ Mary’s (now former) boyfriend of his ‘curse’ of homosexuality. With her world crumbling, Mary lashes out at Hillary Faye, who kicks her out of the Christian Jewels and out of her house. This allows hanger-on Tia (played by Heather Matarazzo, who always seems to play this type of girl) to join the Christian Jewels.

As the year progresses, Mary begins to question her faith and begins to look at her life, and the things in it, with different eyes. When Halloween comes, she is totally separated from the Jewels and Hillary Faye, but has no one is there to fill the void in her life. It becomes obvious that Patrick wants to be her friend (and more), but Mary pushes him away. Her former friends are asked by Pastor Skip to ‘help’ her, which results in a drive-up exorcism, where Hillary Faye throws a bible at Mary while stating she is ‘filled with Christ’s love.’ Mary points out that the book isn’t a weapon and walks away. To cap off this terrible day, she talks with her boyfriend, and finds herself unable to tell him of his impending fatherhood. While it isn’t stated, I believe that she realizes that he’s really gay, and she needs to move on.
After Halloween, Mary is able to hide her pregnancy because no one at the school, except for maybe the teachers, have any idea what a pregnant girl would look like, and even the teachers would have trouble believing one of their students had had sex, much less gotten with child. Eventually, Cassandra figures things out, and confronts Mary. Mary denies it, but Cassandra tricks her into admitting it. Instead of mocking her, as we have been lead to expect, Cassandra comforts Mary, and soon they become true friends, along with Roland.

Soon prom, and the baby’s due date, approaches; Mary, Cassandra and Roland come to find themselves at odds with Hillary Faye. In addition to this, Mary’s mother and Pastor Skip realize they’re in love with each other, but Pastor Skip is married, unable to get a divorce because ‘God doesn’t like them’ or something. Roland posts a pre-plastic surgery picture of Hillary Faye all over the school, resulting in an escalation between her and Cassandra. This culminates in Hillary Faye spray painting all kinds of hateful things all over the school, then planting the evidence on Cassandra and Mary, which leads to Mary’s secret being accidentally revealed to Pastor Skip and the whole school. After this bomb lands in her mother’s and Pastor Skip’s lap, he believes that Mary’s pregnancy is punishment from God for their sinful ways, and says that only if Mary is sent to Mercy House, will he continue to see her. He then expels Cassandra and Mary for defacing the school, even though all he has is some spray paint cans…

When prom night comes, Mary is getting ready to go to Mercy House. However, Cassandra and Roland have other plans for her. They get her to sneak out of her house and join them in town. There they reveal that they have evidence that proves Hillary Faye bought the paint, and they plan on attending the prom. They also have Patrick arrive in a limo, and Mary agrees to go to prom with him.
After they arrive, they are spotted by Hillary Faye, who calls them out publicly. Pastor Skip decides to let them stay, but Hillary Faye can’t let it go. Roland produces a credit card bill showing the sale of the spray paint. He is thwarted, as Hillary Faye points out that he had stolen this card and was using it. Hillary Faye is then forced to swear to God she didn’t graffiti the school. When she does, she’s caught by Tia, who discovered a receipt for the spray paint in Hillary Faye’s van, and is not only humiliated for defacing the school and framing someone else, but she also lied and swore a false oath.
She flees the prom, and runs into Mary’s ex-boyfriend, his boyfriend, and others from Mercy House. Mary and the others follow her, running into them, and the ex-boyfriend discovers he’s going to be a father. There’s then quite a bit of powerful dialogue, where we must wonder: is everything in the bible the way it’s suppose to be? Do we let ourselves judge others for what they are, not who they are?
Of course, Hillary Faye is still running around out there, and starts driving like a woman possessed. In her very screwed up state, she decides to take down the huge Jesus she had put up over the summer, and charges it in her van. At the last second, she changes her mind and clips it, while trying to avoid it. Cassandra tells her that was awesome, and Roland comes the aid of his older sister.

It wouldn’t be an ending if the baby wasn’t born, would it? Mary goes into labor, and her mother, realizing that her daughter and her happiness is all that should be important to her, arrives to ride with her to the hospital. Mary gives birth to a healthy baby girl, and is surrounded by the people who truly care about her: Her mother, her friends; Cassandra and Roland, her baby’s father and his boyfriend and her boyfriend, Patrick.

So, let’s talk a bit about this movie. This movie isn’t anti-Christian. No, really, it’s not. It’s anti-hypocrisy. It’s about how even if you believe in something, the important thing is people and how you treat them. I could go on and on about how his movie could help Christian explain their views, but it would fall on deaf ears. If you want a movie that mocks Christianity, this is the movie you will see. If you want a movie that belittles the Evangelical Christian way of life, that is the movie you will see. If you’re willing to view this movie as a heart-felt, subtle, and caring movie, you’ve gotten the movie the writer and director wanted to make.

At the very core of this movie is redemption and forgiveness. It shows that people are people, and that means they are imperfect. Even Hillary Faye is only trying to do what she feels is right for the outcasts, and the school when she gets them kicked out. But, she’s only human, just like you and me.

I can not urge you enough to see this movie. It is a fantastic piece and you will enjoy it, maybe for the comedy, or maybe for the deeper topics. It’s up to you how you want to enjoy this movie, but I can almost guarantee that you will enjoy it. It’s well directed, superbly cast and acted, and is extremely well written. Watch this movie and tell me it wasn’t good or that you didn’t enjoy yourself. I dare you.


Final Thoughts: What would Jesus do? Laugh his ass off and enjoy this movie.

It was a GOOD+ movie.

Coming Soon: Horrors of War